I've got a Secret, Do you have one too?
by TimeToWrite
Summary: Who knew that Konoha High School would be full of secrets?
1. Hinata's Got a Secret: 1

**A/N: This is like a High School fic. So no fighting, no battles. None of that jazz. Not sure about pairings yet, so hold tight for that. There might not even be any couples. Dunno. Okay, read, enjoy, and press that wonderful review button. Please :) **

Hinata Hyuga had a secret.

She was obsessed with Naruto Uzumaki. Just kidding. Just kidding. That wasn't her "big secret."

Everybody in Konoha High School knew that, except for maybe Naruto Uzumaki himself.

She ran a column in the school newspaper called "Advice for Ya'll." In the advice column, Hinata Hyuuga answered questions acting totally unlike her. She was confident and scarily honest.

If anybody found out about the advice column, the wonderful 'sweet girl' image of hers would be forever ruined.

It was 10 o'clock and everybody was asleep. Because Konoha High School was such a prestigious school, in order to get in, you had to be either:

A) really smart, like Hinata Hyuga

B) really jock-y, like Naruto Uzumaki

C) really loaded with money, like Neji Hyuga (who was her cousin, but they kept their distance)

D) really attractive, like Sakura Haruno

E) full of connections, like Sasuke Uchiha (his brother, Itachi, was a teacher there and his father founded the school)

Students traveled from far, far away so they lived in dorms at Konoha. Luckily, the dorms were super big, and only two people shared one dorm.

Hinata shared her dorm with Tenten, who was her best friend. Tenten was asleep, so Hinata was crouched on her bed (each dorm had two queen sized beds; the beds were good distances apart) with a flashlight supplying light.

She was reading her email messages. This was where she answered her questions. She then sent those answers to Tsunade, who was the current principal of the school. Even Tsunade didn't know who "Keiko" was (a.k.a. Hinata).

That was Hinata's alias.

Tsunade assumed "Keiko" was Sakura Haruno, just because of Keiko's overwhelming personality. Much like Sakura Haruno's.

Hinata sighed happily. She only had three messages.

One said:

**Dear Keiko,**

**I want to know who you are! Please tell us!  
Love, **

**Confused **

Hinata typed a quick reply.

**Dear Confused, **

**The day you find out who I am is the day Sexy One will lose his sexiness.**

**Love, **

**Keiko**

She couldn't use real names, of course, so she settled with nicknames.

Everybody at Konoha knew that Sexy One was Itachi Uchiha. Tsunade only kept up with "Keiko" because Keiko amused her. And plus, an advice column was what the school needed.

She clicked on another message.

It said:

**Hey Keiko!**

**I just want to say that you're pretty awesome. I'm pretty sure you know who Brother of Sexy One is, right? Yeah, well, I have this super huge crush on him! What should I do about it? The whole school is in love with him! I want to be different than all of his other fan girls. **

**Love,  
Cherry Blossom**

Hinata laughed. It was so obvious that Cherry Blossom was Sakura. First of all, Sakura's name basically meant "Cherry Blossom."

Second, if Sasuke Uchiha had to come up with the name of his biggest stalker, it would definitely be Sakura. Or maybe Ino. One of the two, anyway.

Sakura could have been a bit more subtle about it, Hinata thought. Fangirls are all the same.

**Hey Cherry Blossom!**

**Thanks so much! (But I know I'm pretty awesome – no telling me twice. ) Okay, back to your problem. Yes, I know who Brother of Sexy One is. I wouldn't mind being stuck in a room with him… Just kidding! I'm into other guys, not him, no need to worry about Keiko stealin' your man. Just act like yourself! If he doesn't like you for who you are, then he doesn't deserve you. Ask him to do something he likes. I think he likes Green Day, right? Buy him one of Green Day's CD. He'll melt in your hands like chocolate. **

**Problem Solved,**

**Keiko**

She opened up the last message.

**Keiko,**

**I'm clumsy, and I fall down a lot. What should I do?**

**Your friend,**

**Stumbly**

**Stumbly,**

**Just watch where you're going! It's okay to fall. I've tripped down staircases before! Don't worry unless you break a few bones… which hopefully won't happen. Best of luck to you!  
Watch where you go,**

**Keiko**

Hinata sighed. She was finally done with her messages.

_If people found out, I don't know what I can do. Atleast I can rest in peace, knowing that nobody knows… except for me. _

She sighed and flopped down on her bed, putting her laptop away. In just a few minutes, sleep overtook her…

. . . .

"Come on, Sleepy! Wake up!" Tenten threw her pillow at Hinata.

"Wha-?" Hinata said groggily. It had just seemed like a few minutes ago that she'd closed her eyelids…

"Time to wake up!" Tenten jumped on Hinata, who was awake at this point. Hinata sighed.

"Okay, we should get going." She gathered her things together and then did her morning routine, which was only about fifteen minutes long.

When they got to the main hallway, nearly everyone was holding a copy of the "Konoha Press." The weekly newspaper featured many things like articles on various subjects, a sports column by the one and only Naruto Uzumaki, Keiko's advice column, etc.

Keiko's advice column was a big hit. Hinata didn't know why. She wasn't that amazing at giving advice. Perhaps it was just the whole mystery thing. Trying to find out how Keiko was.

Sasuke Uchiha was holding a copy of the "Konoha Press." He was the only one with a disgruntled expression on his face.

"Sakura… that girl really annoys me." He said to nobody in particular, but millions of fan girls were swarming him.

"What did you say, Sasuke honey?" Ino asked curiously.

"Nothing." Sasuke hated his fan girls.

Sakura walked up to Sasuke. "So Sasuke…" She muttered. "Do you like Green Day?"

"Yeah, what's it to you?"

"N-n-nothing," Sakura Haruno was never at a loss for words. Only when Sasuke said a snide comment to her was she every at a loss for words.

A bell chimed, signaling that the students should get to class.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Sasuke loudly said when his fan girls latched themselves on his arm.

Hinata was always amused at the spectacle that occurred before her eyes each morning.

Many students were still swarming around, excited about the newspaper. Hinata heard whispers.

"Keiko's amazing!"

"She would be my best friend, if only I knew who she was…"

"Why does she want her identity to be a secret?"

"We should try to find out who she is!"

Hinata gasped. The students looked at her. "C-c- carry on," she stumbled on her words. "Sorry, I choked on my um, apple." They looked at her weirdly but continued.

And of course, the occasional:

"Naruto's column sucks. There are no words to describe its suckiness. Atleast he's good looking."

Hinata laughed inside. She had to admit, Naruto's column wasn't much liked.

He was an okay student, but he had a major case of ADHD. She found it surprising that he managed to write an article each week.

Sports were his motivation. Too bad he wasn't amazing at them, like Sasuke Uchiha was.

But he tried. Hard. Hinata had to give him credit for that.

She headed off to class, blushing like a tomato when she thought of Naruto. She bumped into somebody tall, who was wrapped in a sports jacket.

"Oh, s-s-sorry." She looked up. It was none other than Naruto. Hinata blushed even harder. "Um, I'm really sorry Naruto! Um, um, um" she looked around wildy. "Have a nice day!" She sped walked out of there.

Naruto hadn't noticed anything amiss until he heard a small girl say sorry_. Oh, hey, that's Hinata. Why's she apologizing? Oh she must have ran into me._

"It's okay, Hinata," he loudly said so the petite girl could hear him. "I'm sorry too." Hinata blushed as she opened the door into her class.

He hadn't noticed because he was thinking intensely about something – people never would have guessed that Naruto Uzumaki would have a brain. And that he was actually able to think.

Whatta shocker.

But that's Konoha High School, for you.

Full of secrets.


	2. Naruto's Got a Secret: 2

**A/N: ****Disclaimer: I should have included a disclaimer for the last chapter, but I didn't so I'll just say it here. I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. If I did, people would hate me, because it would suck. Legitly. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of the manga. I don't get any money from writing this, except headaches, satisfaction, and reviews that make up for the headaches. Okay, continue!**

Naruto Uzumaki headed to his math class that he shared with Sasuke Uchiha, his debatable best friend. Sasuke was always surrounded with people, no matter what.

Naruto cheerily laughed along with Sasuke's fan club, making jokes with them.

"Maybe Sasuke's gay!" Sasuke just rolled his eyes at Naruto, but Naruto had known Sasuke long enough that his jokes wouldn't upset Sasuke. Not that much at least. "I mean, I don't think I could resist any of you lovely looking ladies."

Inside, he was an emotional mess. His parents had died in a car crash when he was very small. Naruto lived with Jiraiya, one of his father's closest friends.

Jiraiya was always working and never had free time to spend with Naruto. Naruto always felt inferior to Sasuke in many ways.

He wished he had a fanclub of his own, even though Sasuke seemed to despise his. Loathe them.

Naruto just wanted to feel loved.

He had been feeling isolated lately.

"Hey dobe, are you okay?" Sasuke asked him, a grin on his face, but Naruto could see real concern behind it.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just fine."

"So I think that's enough socializing, who agrees?" Asuma's loud voice boomed across the room. "If you don't mind, we're actually going to try to get some work done today."

Sasuke's fan girls grumbled and took their seats, which happened to be as far away from Sasuke's table of four as possible.

Coinkydink? I think not. (Sasuke had actually persuaded his dad to make a generous bribe to all of his teachers to keep the girls as far away from him as possible. It was a sort of restraining order that the girls didn't know about, but they were catching on. They weren't miserable causes.)

"Here's some quick review for the test." He scrawled some problems on the board and explained the gist of it.

Naruto couldn't think of anything. His mind just stopped.

_Test? But we just had one like two weeks ago!_

He nudged Sasuke on the shoulder. "Sasuke… since when do we have a test?" He worriedly looked around; his heart pounding harder when he saw that everybody in the class was giving Asuma their full attention.

"Shut up, dobe. Asuma's been telling us about the test since Monday," Sasuke whispered so Asuma wouldn't be able to hear their conversation.

_Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. I can't fail this test. I can't. My last test score was a 56 and my grade Is an F so I *need* to do good on this test. Otherwise I won't be able to play basketball. _

It was winter, and Naruto played basketball in winter. That wasn't the only sport he played, though. He played football in the fall, baseball in the spring, and Naruto was on a soccer team with Sasuke in the summer.

As you can see, he contributed to the "blossoming of youth," as Gai sensei would put it.

Naruto's mind just wandered. He had a major case of ADHD and he couldn't think of one thing for more than ten seconds unless it really interested him.

"I assume you're all prepared for this test, as I have given you much time to study." Asuma said, glancing at the class. The class was, more or less, prepared.

Naruto was the only one who looked as if he was about to throw up_. Oh well. Let's just get this stupid thing over with._

Asuma handed out the tests along with Scantron sheets and scrap paper. "Good luck! I'm going… out for a second."

Shikamaru, who was sitting across from Naruto, grumbled. "He's just wasting his lungs."

The whole class knew that Asuma had an addiction to cigarettes. Perhaps even Tsunade knew. He was always late to class. Reason being? He was smoking a few cigarettes outside.

Naruto gave a small smile.

It would be better if Asuma left, he decided. That way he wouldn't be able to see what was going to happen.

_Desperate times call for desperate measures._

The desks were fairly close apart. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Time was running out. Naruto looked at the first question. He read it, with a bewildered expression on his face. _I have. No. Clue._

Naruto looked over at Sasuke. Sasuke had already completed the first fifteen questions. There were only sixty total. Meaning, he was already done with 25% of the test.

(A/N: Those of you that don't know, Scantron sheets are sheets with multiple choice answers. Like A, B, C, D. So you don't need to show your answers.)

Naruto could see Sasuke's answers.

A, D, C, C, B, A.

He quickly filled them out on his Scantron sheet. Sasuke looked over at Naruto, baffled. Sure, the moron could stoop pretty low, but this was beyond low, even for him.

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders, deciding what to do.

_I could tell Asuma, but that would mean Naruto would get in trouble. I don't want that to happen. He'd get kicked out of the basketball team, and even though he's not the best player, we need him. We don't have many players this year. I can't believe my best friend is a cheater. That leaves me no choice… I can't stand to see him get suspended. Guess I'll just have to let him cheat. _

Sasuke moved his Scantron sheet closer, so Naruto could see better. Naruto grinned, happy his friend was complying to his requests.

Sasuke continued on with the test normally, acting like nothing was amiss. In ten minutes, he was done. Naruto glanced over occasionally at Sasuke's paper. He filled out his test, making sure to miss a couple of them so Asuma wouldn't suspect anything.

Naruto smiled happily. He gave a nod to Sasuke, implying that he was done copying everything. Sasuke handed his test in the bin for completed tests. He was the first. Naturally.

Naruto had to make sure to wait until at least ten more people handed in their tests, otherwise people would look suspicious.

He was usually the last one to hand in his tests. Everybody knew Naruto was a little… slow at absorbing information.

Tick, tock. _I can stay on the basketball team._ Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

Enough people had passed in their tests. It was safe enough for Naruto to pass in his. He quickly scrawled in his name at the top and passed it in.

Fifteen minutes later, Asuma was back in the classroom.

"I trust you all did well." He looked at everybody's face except for Naruto's. Naruto gulped. "Feel free to talk among yourselves now." Asuma's clothes reeked of smoke.

Shikamaru frowned. "I really wish he wouldn't do that."

"Me too," Naruto agreed. Their school was pretty messed up if the teachers were taking breaks to go out for a smoke.

"Hn." Sasuke didn't have anything to say. High School was just troublesome. _Ding!_ The bell rang.

. . . .

The rest of the day passed on uneventfully. Basketball practice was a bore. When Naruto was done showering, he went straight to his room that he shared with Sasuke.

Sasuke wasn't there. [He was probably doing some extra practice with a fancy basketball coach or something.] Naruto turned on the TV. When he saw that nothing on was good, he turned it off and headed upstairs (after finishing his ramen, of course).

He attempted to do his homework, but of course that was a lost cause. Naruto scribbled in random answers. _God, I need a tutor so bad… I don't understand any of this._

He changed into more comfortable clothes, brushed his teeth, and then jumped in his bed.

Naruto tossed and turned. Usually, he slept like a baby because he was so tired, but not today.

. . . .

"I THOUGHT WE RAISED YOU BETTER!"

"YOU HAVEN'T LEARNED ANYTHING!"

"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE SMARTER THAN THAT!"

"CHEATING IS AS BAD AS PLAGIARISM!"

"WE'RE SO DISAPPOINTED IN YOU!"

"YOU'RE SO USELESS!"

"YOU'VE BROKEN OUR TRUST IN YOU!"

Minato and Kushina, Naruto's dead parents, were chastising their son. Except they were in the form of gigantic spiders. Spiders scared Naruto to no end.

He could deal with little ones, but big ones… they messed him up. Real bad.

"BAD NARUTO!"

The spiders came closer to Naruto. Naruto was torn. One side of him wanted to hug them, and the other wanted to ghetto-stomp them.

They came closer and closer, until Naruto was touching both of them…

Minato and Kushina laughed evilly. Meaning the spiders laughed with their voices.

"AHHHHHH!" Naruto awoke with a startle, his face was damp because It was full of sweat.

Naruto didn't want to be a cheater. It had just happened. He couldn't control it, just like you can't control who you fall in love with, or who your parents are. He gasped, seeing it was 9:10. But then he relaxed when he realized that it was Saturday.

Konoha High School was full of secrets.


	3. Sasuke's Got a Secret: 3

**A/N: Whenever I read a story on Fanfiction, I read it in the 1/2 setting which you can find on the top-ish below the ad. I think it's just easier for the eyes and it makes for a quicker read [at least for me] so I recommend it to you guys. Works like a charm ;) **

**A big thank you to Jpanda92, who agreed to be my beta for this story, and helped me with some issues. Also,** **ProjXPsyClone and I agreed to update on the same day just for kicks [she's going to update some time later today] so check out her stories if you get the time. They're great! Now, read on - hope you like it. Feedback is appreciated but not demanded. **

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. If I did, Sasuke would want to kill me. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of the manga. **

Uchiha Sasuke was bored as hell. Like he was every day. He didn't know what the point of school was. Did they want him to kill himself out of boredom? Because that's exactly what Sasuke was thinking about.

He'd completed his warm up assignment ten minutes ago [they got thirty minutes for a warmup - who the heck needed thirty minutes for a warmup?] and he was now twiddling his fingers on top the desk. Basketball practice later. That should be fun. He thought sarcastically.

The truth was that nobody interested him. And who should? It was the Uchihas who were so fascinating, so mesmerizing; so intriguing. It was the Uchihas who were sought out, not the other way around.

The teachers were all predictable: Kakashi was okay but he hid his Icha Icha Paradise books in the teacher's lounge, Anko had a strange fear of snakes, Asuma didn't teach anything [his class was so easy, Sasuke wondered how anybody could fail], Tsunade hated perverts, Jiraiya was the definition of pervert, Kurenai was kind but sort of annoying, and the other teachers, well... they didn't interest him at all.

All of his fangirls were obsessed with him. His friends: Neji, Shikamaru, and Naruto, well, they were kind of interesting; though, not enough for him to invite them to his house. Neji was cold and he had his own little fanclub. Shikamaru didn't bother trying in school, but he always got better grades than Naruto [but really, anybody could manage that]. Naruto was, well, he was Naruto... There are no words to describe Naruto's sheer stupidity.

Sasuke wanted to meet somebody that he could talk to; really talk to. The school was filled with idiots. If they weren't druggies, they were jocks. If they weren't in cheerleading, they were showing off their new car. Just regular teenagers.

You can't blame them, Sasuke thought. It's all those teenage hormones that are the root of the problem. "Okay class!" A loud voice interrupted his chain of thought.

"So for the next few weeks, we're going to talk about. . . . . . . . . ." Tsunade looked away awkwardly. She was the principal of the school; therefore it was her personal duty to teach 'Health class.' Health class went on for the entire year, but only met once or twice each week. They had a new topic of discussion every week or so. Some topics required more attention and time to discuss. They talked about various things from drugs, to bullying, to hormones.

The next few weeks would be anything but fun for Tsunade. She did not want to do this. At all. She took a deep breath, noticing how everyone's eyes were trained on her.

Hinata looked nervous; she was playing with her hair like she always did in her class. Choji was munching away on his chips. Yum, yum, yum, yum being the only thing going through his mind.

"Sex." Tsunade bit out the word, like an alcoholic quickly grabs a bottle of wine after being clean for five months. Some students looked excited; some looked scared; some surprised.

"Sorry, I did not quite catch that." Naruto had a grin on his face. "What was that, Tsunade sensei?" That kid lived to make Tsunade's life a living hell.

She glared at him for a moment before replying. "Shove it." Because she was the principal and she was allowed to get away with little insults like these. The fact that people would understand also helped, given that it was Naruto. Naruto looked like he was going to send up a retort, but she quickly opened her mouth to evade.

"Okay, if some of you didn't hear what I said before, well. We. Are. Going. To. Be. Talking. About. Sex." She decided to curb the modest approach. She had a job to do, a job that would hopefully inspire these Konoha students to use protection... or better yet, practice the art of abstinence. "Now, let me just get this off my chest." Tsunade heard infectious laughter around the room. This was because she wasn't exactly an A-cup, or B, or even C for that matter... Sasuke couldn't help but chuckle.

"Are we really going to be this immature?" The laughter died down and Tsunade stood her ground. She knew she was going to have to be stricter with her students if they were going to listen to her. "This is a difficult topic for me to discuss... so please bear with me. For this class, we're not going to talk about protection, or the chances of pregnancy, or any of that. That's going to be for later. Well, for today, we're going to talk about feelings. As you all know I'm not young or hip. So I want to know what's going through your mind. We're just going to get through feelings today."

The class groaned loudly. Feelings. They would really rather not talk about feelings. The girls wanted to know what the chances of pregnancy were. And the guys wanted to ... well, who knew what they wanted? Certainly not Tsunade. Sasuke felt a smile edging at his lips. This was going to be interesting.

Kiba slammed his head down on his desk. Tsunade looked at him, her arms automatically folding into a stance of authority. "Okay Kiba, why don't you start us off?"

He glared at the unnatural blonde. Everyone knew of her obsession with bleaching it in a lackluster attempt to be 'young and hip'. Kiba sighed loudly, "Ummm, there's not much to say here. I like chicks." The class snickered at the comment. "And. Yeah. What else do you wanna know?"

Tsunade laughed humorlessly. "Inuzuka Kiba. I know all about you. You like walking dogs because all of the 'chicks' come over to pet them. Right?" She looked him head on, her eyes watching his own. Kiba looked away nervously.

"No, I'm not that desperate. I actually like dogs." He was avoiding Tsunade's pointed gaze.

"Alright, whatever you say, Kiba." Her voice showed that she didn't believe him. A lot of people were now looking at the Inuzuka, curious. A lot of people in the class had seen him walking his dog around Konoha.

"Kiba doesn't do that!" A loud, confident voice boomed throughout the classroom.

Tsunade took her gaze off of Kiba and looked at Naruto. She gave a small smile. "Okay, Naruto, let's hear from you now. What do you think about -"

She wasn't able to say the forbidden 's' word as Naruto interrupted her. "Don't say it!" His expression was filled with horror. "I think it will be fun... when I find somebody to y'know... do it with."

The class guffawed in laughter. Tsunade was disappointed. The kid had basically just said that once he found a girl, he would get down to do the dirty. "Naruto. You do realize that you could get a girl pregnant?" Hinata was pushing her fingers together nervously.

"Oh, so that's where babies come from!" Naruto's idiocy made every guy in the class laugh uncontrollably. The girls glared at him, wondering how somebody could be so dumb. Tsunade looked away from him, clearly deciding that he was a lost cause.

She'd heard from two teenagers with XY chromosomes; now she needed to hear somebody with common sense. She knew abut Hinata's crush on Naruto - who didn't? - so she decided to question Hinata next.

The girl blushed when she saw that Tsunade's attention was on her. Not me, not me, not me, not me, oh please not me. Luck obviously didn't favor her today. "Hinata." Hinata jumped a little in her seat. "What do you think about what Naruto just said?"

She wanted her crush to like her; she'd always wanted that. But she also wanted to tell the truth. What should I do? What should I do? Sasuke gave a half smile. It would be interesting to hear what she said.

"W-w-well I t-think" She looked around unsure of what to say. She took a deep breath and looked at Naruto, who had one eye closed, looking as if he was about to doze off. This gave her more confidence, knowing that he wasn't listening intently to what she had to say, like every other person was. "That it should be a time spent when you find somebody that you r-really l-love. And you s-should always use protection, if you're not r-ready for a huge c-commitment." She sighed, happy about her response, and satisfied that Naruto hadn't heard her.

A huge smile lit Tsunade's face. Finally, somebody with common sense. "Shikamaru?" She already knew the response; she was expecting it. Everybody was.

"Troublesome." She laughed a little. She knew that she had little to worry about with him.

"O.K. Sakura?" Tsunade looked over at a tall girl with pink hair. Nobody really knew if it was dyed or not, and they sure weren't going to confront her about it.

Sakura looked over at Sasuke, who couldn't care less, wanting to impress him. "I agree with Hinata." She said confidently. "It should be spent with somebody you love, when you find somebody like that." Sakura glared at Naruto, who was now quietly sleeping on his desk. She knew it would only be a few minutes before he would start to snore. "That's what I think."

Tsunade smiled, satisfied with this response. "Sasuke?" The bell rang, interrupting the discussion. Sasuke didn't really care; he didn't really have a lot to say on the matter anyways. "Okay, no homework. Have a good day! I'll see you all on Friday." Most of the class had already bound off.

Sasuke glanced over to the Hyuuga girl. He hadn't known that she had it in her to speak her mind, and frankly, he was impressed. Hinata could feel somebody's eyes on her, making her blush.

Sasuke grabbed his backpack and slung it around his shoulders. In ten seconds Sakura would be there. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. He considered making a run for it, but he knew that she would catch up to him in the hallway, embarrassing them both.

"Let's go Sasuke!" She grabbed one of his hands in an attempt to be touch-y feel-y. Sasuke was not a touch-y feel-y person. Not really. He gave her an ice-cold death glare.

"Leave me alone, Sakura." She let go of his hand, settling to walk alongside him chattering about something or other; he wasn't really paying attention.

As he was leaving, he stole a quick glance at Hinata who was still packing up. She was a really slow packer. He couldn't help but think she had looked cute when she'd blushed. She was an interesting girl. He wanted to get to know her better; she must have secrets just waiting to come out.


	4. The Game: 4

**A/N: Thank you for everybody who has commented, favorited, reviewed, or put a story alert on my story. It really does mean a lot to me. If you want to, leave a review telling what you think of the story so far and if it's getting boring or if it's keeping your interest. If it is starting to get boring for you, tell me what you think should happen next. I'm open to ideas. By the way, an OC character will be introduced in this story- Stanton. You'll learn more about him later. **

**Okay, thanks everybody again! A huge thanks to my beta Jpanda92, an amazing writer and editor. Now read and I hope you enjoy. :) **

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. Really, I don't. Take my word for it. There's no way I could draw like Masashi Kishimoto, my hero, and the creator of the manga.  
**

Uzumaki Naruto woke up to a dark, dreary day filled with mushy snow. Unlike his classmates who were probably hoping it would be a snow day, he got up in one swift gesture. And he laughed. He guffawed and chuckled and had some more laughs until he couldn't laugh anymore. The reason that he was having a spaz attack was because today was the day.

_The day._

It was the basketball game against Pellerin High School; a boarding school much like Konoha High. The kids that went there were bad-mannered and eerie. Orochimaru, their Principal, had an odd fascination with little boys and his perfectly long, black hair was his trademark.

Naruto grimaced just thinking about the strange grin that Orochimaru had given to him when he had almost gotten into a fight with Deidara; a jock that liked to make fun of Naruto. It was supposed to have been a glare, but the experience had still left a deep mental scar.

The students at Pellerin High were widely disliked. They thought they were better than everybody else- they were constantly showing off their latest spoils such as a gold watch or yellow Porsche or the latest in their favorite designers newest line. They would only speak to each other, only forcing a conversation with someone else when absolutely necessary.

Whenever Pellerin High School kids went out to eat, photographers who were taking shots of exotic birds would stop and forget what they were doing and- _gasp!_- and take pictures of the haughty teens instead. It was just the way the World worked.

"There are winners and losers in this World." Deidara had told Naruto at last year's game. The Pellerin High kids- _the Evil Ones_, as Naruto put it- had creamed Konoha High School with an embarrassing score of 32-12. "Sadly," he said, mocking Naruto, "you are one of the_ losers_."

Orochimaru had stepped in before the inevitable fight could break out. Naruto had wanted it to happen; he wanted to throw a few punches at Deidara: maybe break a nose or chip a tooth or tow.

"At least I don't have hair longer than a girl's!" Naruto had yelled while being pulled away by a pissed off Tsunade.

Deidara had chuckled, not fazed by Naruto's sad attempt at a comeback. "It's _art_. Your hair is just unkempt and gross." Orochimaru had dragged him off before he could say another word.

'We're definitely going to beat those losers today,' Naruto thought. 'It's either that or I'm going to fess up to Asuma about how I got my grade on my math test.' Now he had real determination; fueled by the knowledge that if they lost against the Pellerins, Jiraiya would kill him as a result of Asuma knowing the truth about his cheating ways.

No, there was no way that could happen. Sure, Naruto was down in the blues some days, but he was also happy. He liked living. He didn't want to die just yet. He still had to bug Sasuke more; it was his duty as Sasuke's loyal and irritating best friend. Speaking of Sasuke...

Naruto looked around at the bed that was a couple feet away from him. The bed in his best friend was _sleeping_ on. Naruto catapulted on top of Sasuke, the other waking up with a shudder. "How can you be sleeping on the day of our epic basketball game? I mean, seriously. Basically the whole school is going to be there to see Sasuke Uchiha: star player. And what is Sasuke doing? Sleeping like Shikamaru!"

He gulped when he looked at the face of the raging Uchiha. 'If looks could kill...' ran through his head.

. . . .

By lunch the whole school was buzzing about the match that afternoon. Every player on the team had had many fans wishing him luck; they all hoped that their team would bring pride to Konoha High.

Sasuke had had _many_ fans: teachers, girls, Akamaru, etc. Naruto could barely even find a moment to talk to his best friend. People just kept stopping by their lunch table, gabbing on about how great of a player Sasuke was.

Sasuke politely nodded and tried to feign interest in what they were saying, but Naruto knew that his mind was focused elsewhere; like how long it would take for him to finish his essay, what plays they should use in the game, and who on the other team would pose as the biggest challenge. He was thinking strategy while the girls were talking _Sasuke_.

While Naruto was thinking about what a big head Choji had, a certain Hyuuga was shaking her head at her friend's request.

"Come on, Hinata! I know you like Naruto! Show him that you care about the game!" Hinata shook her head wildly, knowing that Tenten couldn't _possibly_ force her to wish the boy a good game. Well, she was wrong. Tenten pulled the girl to her feet and dragged her to the table of jocks where they were discussing the game.

"Hey!" Tenten said loudly, her voice booming across the table and stopping all chatter. "Hinata's got something to say!"

Hinata tried to glare at her friend, but found it useless. She could not glare at anybody- it was against her nature. "Yeah, what is it?" Naruto asked, noticing that this was the same girl he had run into before. "Oh, by the way, sorry for bumping into you before."

Hinata gaped a little; it was highly unlikely that he remembered, and yet, he did. Maybe the Uzumaki did have a little feelings for her. "O-Oh," She quietly said in a voice that was just barely above a whisper. "I j-just wanted to s-say good luck. For the g-game. I hope y-you guys w-win." Hinata gave a small smile, hoping to not have to repeat herself.

The enthusiasm that she got from the blonde haired boy was not expected. He jumped up from his place and took her hands, her smaller ones fitting right into his. "You bet we're going to win!" Naruto gently removed his hands from hers and gave a thumbs up, now facing the rest of the gang. "Are we going to WIN?" The last word he shouted; Sasuke was sure he would need a hearing aid.

"YEAH!" The rest of the team was now in good spirits and chattering among themselves. Tenten was glad that she'd forced Hinata to do this- the shy girl needed it. And besides, Naruto was nice to everybody unless you gave him a reason not to be.

A bell rang, signaling that they should get to their next class. 'Almost time,' Naruto thought. He couldn't wait- he had jitters all over. While Naruto was hyperventilating in a guy way, Sasuke glanced over at Hinata. "Hey, can I walk you to class?"

Hinata didn't know what to think of this gesture. She gave him a tiny smile and nodded, but she couldn't look him in the eyes. They walked off together; enough space between them for another person to walk through. The girls looked at Hinata, in fury and jealousy. When Naruto was done jumping up and down, he looked around to find that he was the only person left in the lunch room.

. . . .

"WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?"

"WE'RE GONNA WIN!"

The whole team was bouncing up and down together in order to get excited for the game.

"WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?"

"WE'RE GONNA WIN!"

The bleachers were full of mostly Konoha students, however, some Pellerin High kids were there, in order to show some team spirit for their school. But because the game was at Konoha High, there weren't too many Pellerin High students.

Gai smiled at his team. He knew that he would be satisfied with the results of the game, as long as they gave it their all. But he also knew that there was some bad blood between Konoha High and Pellerin High- for example, he knew Naruto _despised_ Deidara.

"Okay. The people in the first quarter of the game are: Sasuke, Naruto, Kiba, Neji, and Lee. You guys know what to do. We talked about this during practice yesterday. The rest of you will be put in the game eventually. Okay. Now let's do our team cheer." Gai looked each team member in the eyes, hoping to get some more energy from them. It happened.

Everybody in the bleachers were cheering so loudly that Gai's ears were screaming for them to shut up. But he knew they were just as excited as him.

Each teammate put his hand in the circle and shouted, "Konoha's the best!" Then they removed their hands from the circle and went to their respective positions; the ones that weren't going to play went to the team bench and the others that were playing got set up.

The Pellerin High kids went to their respective position after doing their cheer which was, "Nobody compares to Pellerin!"

Because Lee was the tallest, he would be a part of the jump ball. Last year, Deidara had won the jump ball. But it seemed there was a new addition to the team- a lanky teenager with baggy shorts stood across from Lee.

Lee gave him a big grin, as it was his nature to be friendly to everybody. "What are you staring at, big eyebrowed freak?" It seemed the Pellerin High kid wasn't as easy going as Lee was. Lee shrug it off, focusing on the game.

The referee looked at both teams. "Look, I want you guys to put aside your differences and play a good, solid, clean game." He'd witnessed last year's game and it was anything but pretty. Each player looked at him in annoyance, wanting to just start the game. Paul, the referee, grunted; it wasn't his business if they didn't like each other. He blew the whistle and the game took off- the cheerleaders for both teams had already started their cheering.

Lee jumped up high in the air and sent it over to Sasuke who caught it and started dribbling fast to their basket. Sasori tried to steal it from him, but Sasuke shot up into the air and scored before Sasori could even blink. It was a three pointer.

Every Konoha High Student burst into laughter at this. Leave it to Sasuke to score in the first ten seconds. Neji gave him a pat on the back as they ran back to their side of the court. "Nice work." Sasuke grunted at him.

As the game went on, Naruto realized something. These kids were good- maybe even better than last year. The one that had done the jump ball with Lee- Stanton, that's what Hidan had called him when giving him a high five- was phenomenal. He was maybe even as good as Sasuke, and that was pretty dang good. The other Pellerin kids were playing well, but Stanton stood out. He was probably the tallest one, maybe 6" 4' or something, and that gave him a really great edge. He was also pretty scary with his facial hair and big arms and legs. This was not a guy to mess with.

The whistle blew and movement stopped. The game was close; Konoha was leading: 12 to 9. But there were still three more quarters to be played. As Naruto was jogging over to where the water bottles were, he gave a pat on the back to Sasuke and Neji. "Nice work, guys!"

He chugged some water down, not caring that some had spilled on his clothes. His other teammates gave him highfives as well as to the other guys who had just been playing. Gai took of with his little speech that he always had prepared. He was so emotional; it was hilarious. Naruto predicted he might have even been crying.

"Wow, guys... you just blew me away right there. That's called teamwork! You guys have improved so much. Excuse me." He looked away from the team; Kiba could see that a few tears were coming out of his eye. The team members had to hide their snickers.

When Gai had fully composed himself he turned to the team. "Keep up the great work! Naruto and Neji, I'm going to take you out of the game if you don't mind." Naruto frowned, but he knew that he had already played long enough. "Konohamaru, you're going to take Naruto's place and Shikamaru, you're going to take Neji's place." Konohamaru jumped up in happiness. This was one of the few games that he got to actually play in.

Konohamaru was a Freshman, whereas the rest of the team were either Sophomores or Juniors. Seniors very rarely played a sport and if they did, it was usually skiing, because skiing was fun and placed less stress on them. Playing a sport like basketball which required you to be in a team was hard because if you did bad, your performance affected the rest of the team and the game. Seniors mostly spent their time hanging with their friends or studying for their choice college.

Naruto thought he was going to continue with sports throughout the full four years as his own Konoha experience, but he wasn't positive. Playing a sport required a tremendous amount of effort and time, but he thought it was fully worth it.

The team did their cheer and split up. He went over to Konohamaru and gave him a small slap on the back. "Good luck, Konohamaru! You can do it." Naruto smiled, knowing how worried Konohamaru must be about messing up.

Naruto sat down on bench. He stared intently at the game, where Sasuke was on a roll and kept getting basket after basket after basket. Stanton was doing just as well; Naruto wondered who he was and where he'd come from, he hadn't seen him in last year's game.

Sasuke was dribbling the ball past Deidara and Kisame when he saw somebody being put into the game for Sasori. It was Itachi.

Itachi was his brother but they both went to different schools. He gasped, because he hadn't realized that Itachi was a part of the basketball team. Sasuke and Itachi had always been close friends, but after last year... that had all changed.

"What are you lookin' at?" Kisame asked. "Your more successful brother?" Kisame stole the ball from Sasuke, who stood there, motionless. He caught his breath after a few seconds and realized that he was just wasting time.

When Sasuke had the ball again, Deidara and Kisame were ganging up on him. They weren't talking too loudly, so Sasuke wasn't sure if the referee heard their threats.

"Your dad hates you."

"You're such a loser, Sasuke."

"Your parents had the best relationhsip before... you know. Your mom decided too..." That was coming from Deidara. Sasuke was trying to do his best to ignore them, but it was hard.

Itachi didn't know what was going on. It seemed like his teammates were saying something to Sasuke, but he didn't know what. He hoped it wasn't too bad because he really did care about his brother.

Now the new guy, Stanton, glared at Sasuke. "Your mom. Is. Such. A."He didn't say the next word, but the raven haired basketball player could guess what he was going to say.

Sasuke had had enough.

He slammed the ball against Stanton. He couldn't stand having this wannabe basketball player badmouthing him and telling him which parent was in the right and which was in the wrong. Sasuke had a very positive relationship with his mother, and it was not up to anybody else to tell him that he'd made a mistake.

He attacked Stanton, throwing punches and kicks. Stanton didn't hesitate; he fought Sasuke with as much energy as Sasuke was, him. It took a few minutes before the audience realized what was going on.

The perfect, usually a gentleman, sports star- Sasuke Uchiha- was in a fight.

Tsunade and Orochimaru jogged over as fast as they could. They both roughly grabbed their student off of each other. When the fight had subsided Sasuke had a few bruises and Stanton had a bloody nose. Kurenai, the nurse as well as a teacher, treated their wounds.

The Konoha High principal walked over to where Sasuke was being treated. "What's gotten into you?" He didn't respond. His teammates were all crowding around him and everybody was looking at him and Stanton, hoping that they would be okay and the game could continue.

Tsunade knew what she had to do. She might be hated for this, but it was her job as a principal. She stepped into the center of the gym, and using her loudest possible voice, she said, "This game will not be continued any longer, as a result of this fight. I have intended for my students to stay as civil as possible, but they have disappointed me. Very much so. The game may- or may not- be rescheduled. So I would ask all of you to please go home." She finished her little speech, said a few words to Gai, and then walked out. She needed to take some aspirin.

Naruto stared at his best friend. He didn't know what had overcome Sasuke. But he had a feeling that it would not be a good idea to ask about it. Sasuke would talk when he felt ready- and if he never felt ready, Naruto would understand that. He'd have to.


	5. A Talk: 5

**A/N: Hey, guys, I have no excuse why I haven't updated in so long. I don't know if anybody is still going to read this, but if you are, I am really going to try to update more over the summer. Thank you and tell me what you think! :]**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This is for pure entertainment.**

Hinata sighed. She surveyed the scene around her. It was snowing lightly outside and the wind was soothing to the senses. A few days ago, Konoha High School had played intensely in a basketball game again Pellerin High School. It had been the most anticipated match of the year. Hinata replayed the last few minutes of the game in her mind. Sasuke punched and Stanton ducked, and then Stanton punched and Sasuke ducked. The game had ended in a surprise fight between the star player of Konoha and the new basketball player. Tsunade had ended the game. Nobody knew whether or not the game would be rescheduled or not. Knowing Tsunade's stubborn attitude, it probably wouldn't.

The wind blew harder and Hinata tasted the winter air. Dressed appropriately (in a winter jacket, scarf, and jeans), she wasn't too cold. It was a wonderful day to be outside, soaking up the treasures of winter. Maybe she would ask Tenten if she wanted to help make a snowman later.

Footsteps were coming.

Hinata prepared to leave. After all, her shy demeanor didn't help her easily make friends, and she knew that she would be awkward and bore whoever it was. She looked up into the eyes of the only Sasuke Uchiha. With dark brown eyes that were easy to lose one's soul into and a caring attitude toward his friends even though to others his personality came off as a jerk, Sasuke Uchiha was a very attractive young man which is why he had many girls (and a few guys) in his fan club.

However, he was no Naruto Uzumaki. Hinata's heart yearned for Naruto to notice her, to hold her in his arms, to even talk to her without her having to initiate the conversation after having Tenten force her to. Sasuke knew this – nearly everybody knew about the girl's infatuation with the goofball of the school.

"Hello."

Hinata tried not to gawk at him; her jaw had almost fallen to the ground in surprise. The youngest Uchiha was not known for his friendliness. He was withdrawn, like her. He refused to talk to others by choice and Hinata by lack of self confidence.

She tried to give him a small smile so he wouldn't notice that she had been sizing him up and going through possible possibilities of why he wanted to talk to her, but knowing Sasuke, he probably knew. He was very observant. "Hi, Sa-a-suke."

"Mind moving over?" Hinata merely gave him a look of confusion, completely enraptured by the sweet-talking Uchiha.

"Scoot over." His head nodded in the direction of the bench that she was sitting on. Hinata tried to regain her composure.

"O-Oh." She moved over all the way to one side so that he could have all of the space that he wanted. "Sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it." Sasuke took a seat in the middle of the bench; surprised by the close proximity of his touch, Hinata flinched. He leaned back seemingly lost in thought.

The two sat for a few minutes, both of them lost in thought. Hinata's mind was wondering why Sasuke was there and could not come up with any reasonable ideas. Sasuke was thinking back to the game, like he had been for the past few days.

What Deidara, Kisame, and the others had said had really gotten to him. How could they possibly know about his mother? His mother didn't have the most inspiring past. She had done things that she had regretted, things that Sasuke's father couldn't bear thinking about, which had only lead to the divorce. He had chosen to live with his mother and Itachi had chosen to live with his father.

It was a family secret. Sasuke's mom hadn't told them the real reason for the split until he had entered High School- last year. Sasuke had been a mix of emotions when he'd been informed of his mother's past deeds. He had refused to talk to her for a whole week, only coming out of his room for meals, and that was only when he knew his mom wasn't there.

'How could they know?' He wondered. 'Had Itachi told them all? That's a silly idea, though. Itachi's responsible and he wouldn't spill about our mom… but, how else could they have known?'

Hinata came out of deep thought and looked over at Sasuke who had a conflicted expression on his face. He looked like he wanted to kill somebody. Hinata whispered, "Sasuke? Sasuke?"

No answer. "Sasuke!" She said this louder and shook his shoulders so he would come back to reality. Sasuke blinked rapidly.

"Huh?"

"You w-were kind of out of it, so I decided to try to bring y-you back."

Sasuke looked at Hinata with real gratitude in his eyes. Few people performed kind deeds for him in attempts to truly be nice to him- either they were trying to get to his dad or they were trying to get in his pants.

"Thank you." He hoped she would understand that he very rarely meant these words.

"W-welcome. U-um…" She looked at him, twiddling her fingers.

"Yes?" He looked at her with a curious expression.

"I was just w-wondering.. what were you thinking about?" Her voice was shaky but she had said what she had wanted to say. "I know it's none of my b-business and a-all but you were looking so serious that I g-guess it must have been very i-important and I rarely see you look like that. I mean you h-have it so e-easy and all with your dad the owner of a big company and a-all-"

Sasuke chuckled. The girl could talk when she really wanted to. She was also incredibly observant. "Trust me. I don't have it easy at all. My parents split up."

Hinata felt like that statement was a knife to her stomach. She hoped that she hadn't come off as rude, or anything, because she enjoyed getting to know Sasuke. "I kn-know, it just seems like you have everything- the looks, the athletic gift, the money, any g-girl you could w-want…"

Sasuke leaned further against the bench. Well, if she was going to compliment him, he was going to show her how unique she was too. "You're pretty, your dad is the owner of a major business company, you're smart, nice and you're fun to be around."

"T-thanks! That m-meant a lot, you know, you're probably the only one that sees me like that…" She sighed. "Everybody else t-thinks I'm too shy to hold a conversation."

Hinata was surprised that she had said this much to the Uchiha. Contrary to what others said, he was pretty easy going and she would enjoy having a friend like him in her life.

"Well, you just have to open up." He gave her a broad smile. "I mean, it's not much coming from me because I try to avoid conversation but whatever."

She desperately wanted to ask him, "Why are you so willing to talk to me then?" But she held her tongue. She had already asked him things that others normally wouldn't.

"HEY SASUKEEEEEE!" It was Naruto. Nobody else would run across the snow in just sneakers, a t-shirt, and shorts.

"It's the dobe. Great." Hinata laughed lightly, trying to hide her beating heart as best as she could. "Well, I'd better get going. Nice talking to you." He got up from the bench and left. Hinata was happy that she wouldn't have to make conversation with Naruto. With her luck, she would blush until she could blush no more.

Hinata could hear Naruto say, "Was that your girlfrieeend?" which resulted in a light slap. Despite the harm that Sasuke had done to Naruto, she couldn't help but laugh.

Sasuke Uchiha was very different from what the stories said.


End file.
